This June, Interface is pleased to present, Running, rigging, wading, a solo exhibition of new work by Dionne Lee. Working in photography, collage, and video, Lee engages the complications and dual legacies within representations of the American landscape and considers the history of black bodies on American soil as a lens for examining her own relationship to nature.

For her exhibition at Interface, Lee will present several new photographs, a video, and a large, handmade rope – the artist’s first foray into sculpture. The work focuses on Lee’s personal relationship to water and its historical implications.

The layered and evocative photographs include images and objects related to water (including ropes, sails, and divining rods) that have been transformed through collage, repetitive copying and scanning, before reaching their final form as silver gelatin prints.

Lee’s new video piece depicts the artist traversing the landscape with dowsing rods – a type of divination tool used to locate ground water. Meanwhile, the handmade rope, which is nearly forty feet long, was made using a traditional rope making method. The ends are left loose following splicing techniques used by sailors for joining ropes to increase their strength and durability. Aesthetically and conceptually, the piece evokes a variety of associations including bondage and survival tactics.

Lee has produced a potent body of work for this exhibition rooted in history, personal trauma, rising oceans and inland drought, all ultimately grappling with water’s ability to simultaneously support and threaten life.